All this talk about the old analog phone networks reminds me of this YouTube channel I like to fall asleep to. It’s a bunch of recordings made by a phone phreak from back in the day. He narrated his recordings in modern times to explain what he was doing, and then stuck them all on YouTube. I discovered a whole new world that I didn’t know existed because it disappeared long before our time.
The quirks of the old phone systems being analog by nature allowed for some really neat things to happen that are impossible today. Such as being able to hear more and more noise being added to the to the signal as each node connects during a long distance call, effectively allowing you to “feel” the distance. Or did you know that if a bunch of people in an area called the same wrong number and shouted loud enough, they could hear each other in between the “your call cannot be completed” recording? It was basically a way for complete strangers to have a conversation with each other in a pre-intenet era. It’s some really fascinating stuff.
I’m early Gen X and phreaking was well before my time, too. John Draper was born in 1943 and he and friends discovered the 2600Hz signal and the whistle having that frequency around the time I was born.
Millennials will remember this one weird trick
Phone phreaking with that whistle is a older than millennials, it’s closer to a boomer-era trick.
Yeah, I’m an elder millennial and while I got the reference, it is before my time.
All this talk about the old analog phone networks reminds me of this YouTube channel I like to fall asleep to. It’s a bunch of recordings made by a phone phreak from back in the day. He narrated his recordings in modern times to explain what he was doing, and then stuck them all on YouTube. I discovered a whole new world that I didn’t know existed because it disappeared long before our time.
The quirks of the old phone systems being analog by nature allowed for some really neat things to happen that are impossible today. Such as being able to hear more and more noise being added to the to the signal as each node connects during a long distance call, effectively allowing you to “feel” the distance. Or did you know that if a bunch of people in an area called the same wrong number and shouted loud enough, they could hear each other in between the “your call cannot be completed” recording? It was basically a way for complete strangers to have a conversation with each other in a pre-intenet era. It’s some really fascinating stuff.
I’m early Gen X and phreaking was well before my time, too. John Draper was born in 1943 and he and friends discovered the 2600Hz signal and the whistle having that frequency around the time I was born.
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